Pigs & Peaches BBQ Festival

The City of Kennesaw is hosting the annual Pigs and Peaches BBQ Festival on Friday, August 24 and Saturday, August 25, 2018. The two-day festival features plenty of great barbecued meats as well as great desserts and live entertainment. Kids will enjoy the large Kid Zone, and families can enjoy the numerous vendors and exhibits.

Kennesaw’s best professional and amateur BBQ competition.

The Festival includes a Georgia State Championship Barbecue Cookoff, including over $10,000 in cash and prizes in an event sanctioned by the Kansas City Barbeque Society. There is also a non-sanctioned Backyard BBQ event and a Anything Butt Contest and Peach Dessert Contest.

Carrie House, 2838 Cherokee St. -Shuttle picks up & drops off at the bus parking roundabout.

Tunnel Plaza (across the street from Revival on Main), 2840 South Main St. -Shuttle picks up & drops off at the sidewalk at the Tunnel Plaza.

North Main Street. -Shuttle picks up & drops off at the intersection of North Main St and Moon Station.

Kennesaw First Baptist Church, 2958 North Main St. -Shuttle picks up & drops off at the front church parking lot.

Shuttle service will be available on Friday, August 24 from 5:30pm to 10:30pm, and on Saturday, August 25 from 9:30am to 10:30pm. Shuttles will depart from each location approximately every 20-25 minutes.

For more information, please call (770) 422-9714 or visit www.PigsAndPeaches.com.

Contact Information:
Phone: (770) 422-9714

Past Grand Champions

2017 – The Bald Hawg BBQ

2016 – Moyers Competition Bar-B-Q

2015 – Swine & Shine BBQ

2014 – Moyers Competition Bar-B-Q

2013 – Southern Thunder BBQ

2012 – Que’n Stew’n & Brew’n

2011 – Blue Sky BBQ

2010 – The Right Stuff BBQ

2009 – Chatham Artillary BBQ

2008 – Bill & The Dixie Chicks BBQ

2007 – Jack’s Old South BBQ

For more information, please call (770) 422-9714 or visit www.PigsAndPeaches.com.

Hi Carolyn,
Thanks for your comment. You are correct in that the bbq is definitely featured more prominently than the peaches, but there were several great peach options available. Some vendors had peach cobbler available, and Mercier Orchards was there with ice cold peach cider. By the way, if you have not been to Mercier Orchards in North Georgia, you should definitely add a Mercier visit to your “to do” list.

We would love to join you as a vendor at your event this year, but are having trouble locating a current vendor application. Went to pigsandpeaches.com, but no luck. Any help would be greatly appreciated! Many thanks!

Hi Lynette,
The parking area around the Ben Robertson Community Center will be used for the festival. There is usually a stage at the entrance to the center and tables, chairs, vendors, etc. in the parking lot (see pictures below).

Parking is available at the First Baptist Church on Main Street, in front of the Teen Center, at the Depot, at City Hall, at Publix and at strip mall immediately behind Publix, as well as some downtown businesses (marked with signage).

Thanks for the comment. Here is the entertainment lineup (also added to the main article above):
On Friday, Toulouse Street (Doobie Brothers tribute band) will headline the main stage at 7:30pm.
On Saturday, the entertainment lineup on the kids stage includes puppet shows, youth dance performances, and cooking demonstrations. Saturday’s main stage lineup includes blues and jazz acts (including Tommy Keys and Martha Ann Brooks) as well as The Stranger (Billy Joel tribute) headlining at 7pm.

You can enjoy the atmosphere and live entertainment for free, however you will probably want to buy some of the delicious food and drinks available for sale. It is probably a good idea to bring more than you think you will need, but they offer ATM machines if you need more.

Are dogs allowed? I have a 6 lb Chihuahua that usually rides in her tote bag everywhere I go but I didn’t want to drive up from Douglasville with her and then not be able to get in with her. Too hot to leave her in the car.

We would suggest calling the Kennesaw Parks and Recreation Department at (770) 422-9714. We have seen dogs there in the past, but are not sure if there is a specific pet policy during the festival.

In years past, the main festival area has been in the parking lot around the community center. There were also some activities that took place on the athletic fields around the center (beer garden, sports zone, helicopter ride, etc.) and no pets are allowed on the fields (see above picture).

Congratulations on the new baby and very understandable not wanting to be out too long with a 3 month old. We called the Kennesaw Parks and Recreation department but were unable to get that information. They said that information might be posted on the pigsandpeaches.com website a bit closer to the event day though. If we find out any new information, we will be sure to post it.

Been living in Kennesaw for over six years, but this will be my family’s first time to the festival. Can’t wait. My daughter is excited to go, though she was disappointed to find out that she won’t see any pigs…live ones anyhow. (Or will she?).

Thanks for the comment and glad you are going to the festival this year. We don’t recall seeing any live pigs in years past, however your daughter might have just as much fun spotting the amazingly creative banners with pigs on them – created by the bbq teams (see pictures above for examples).

Prices for food and drinks are determined by each vendor. Unfortunately there is no “all you can eat” ticket, but perhaps you should suggest that to the event organizers. 😉 Prices are typically in the $1-$5 range, depending on the food item. There are also some tents in the backyard bbq contest and pro contest that do not sell food and are only there for the competition. These tents are generally away from the main area and are labeled with a “no vending” sign.

TOTALLY DISAPPOINTING !!!!!!!
This is the second time I have been to the festival and was completely disappointed.
The festival is great if you want to try your hand at a BBQ competition, but for the general public it was awful.
Very few vendors were giving samples whether free or for a small price.
I expected to try a number of different places and then become a customer of their establishment.
Instead, your offered a full plate of BBQ for 5$ or so. So, I ended up eating at one place where I ate an entire plate and was done eating. If I wanted to go eat a plate of BBQ, I can go to a local restaurant.

My suggestion to all the vendors:
If you want to build your business, you offer a small taste or sample of your food to the thousands of people who may become potential customers. I’m not saying it has to be free either. Give a small sample for free (similar to how the mall gets you to try a small piece to win a customer) or even if I can get 1 rib for 1$, this way I can try 5 places for 5$.
Either way, instead, I tried 1 place (which was very good) and looked at 100 BBQ signs wondering how their food was.
Oh….Pigs & Peaches – I don’t recall seeing anyone selling Peach Cobbler or Peach pie, etc.

The Taste of Kennesaw is a sampling/ tasting of food event.That may the type of event you are referring too.

As far as the Pigs and Peaches BBQ festival, it includes a BBQ competition sanctioned by the Kansas City Barbecue Society which is the largest in ,the State of Georgia. It was also chosen by KCBS as one of the top 25 BBQ festivals in the country.

There is music, food, a Kid zone, all day entertainment, two evening concerts, and even a fireworks display to end the festival Saturday evening.

The Pigs & Peaches BBQ Fest is a two day festival on Friday and Saturday only. Not sure why they don’t include Sunday. If you would like to forward your suggestion to the event organizers, you can reach them at (770) 422-9714.

The kids zone features a mix of both paid and free activities. Paid activities include rides, slides, jumpers, etc. and free activities include entertainment on the family stage and “a variety of interactive games and other child-friendly activities.” (source:pigsandpeaches.com)

Hi, I am a North Cobb High School student, and I signed up yesterday to volunteer for the festival. However, I have yet to receive any information on what I will be doing and who to contact. Any suggestions on what to do?

This year’s pigs and peaches festival was a waste of my time. I thought that this would be a great putting for the family, especialy my son and his best friend who both love bbq. I think the setup was wonderful & whoever took the time to plan this event did a great job, but my biggest gripe would be with the vendors. Most of the vendors probably had great products, but they mostly kept it to themselves. As I walked around a lot of the vendors were feeding their personal guests seated around their RVs, sitting around and enjoying the atmosphere. My wife thought that maybe they were on break. I must say that there was one vendor who was busy from the time I got to the event from the time I had arrived until the time I left. Zeigler’s BBQ had some great food. They were very busy and still found a way to be hospitable to their customers. One other gripe I have is if this was suppose to be a “pigs & peaches” festival, nobody had peach pies or cobblers. This was very disappointing for me. I walked the entire park and did not find but one vendor selling peaches, no peach pies though. Somewhat disappointing.

Thanks for the comment. Part of the festival includes a bbq competition, and many of the groups sitting around their RVs are actually just amateur bbq teams who are not legally allowed to sell the food they are cooking. They are cooking in order to enter their food into the competition, and they likely just share the rest with their friends and family. Many local BBQ restaurants were there though selling to the public, including BBQ Street where we had some great peach cobbler, Zeiglers where we had great pork and ribs, Big Shanty Smokehouse, Williamson Bros, JD’s, and several others. We also sampled some great peach pies from Mercier Orchards booth to the right of the main stage and some peach ice cream from Front Porch Ice Cream.

The last time I was at the festival, there was a booth with cake-pops, I took a business card but I lost it and in would like to use this business for my wedding. Is there a vendor list I can look at to find them!?

I am looking for a certain vendor that sold the most amazing strawberry lemonade I have ever had and I can’t remember their name. All I know is that they sold it in a small jug like plastic container and it had fresh strawberries and a lemon in it. I believe it was sold for $5. If you know their name could you please email their name so I can find them